Wednesday/Thursday May 24 25th and 25th, Vancouver Convention Centre. Ticketed event. CityAge and AdvantageBC will partner on the second annual 2016 Pacific Finance & Trade Summit in Vancouver, BC, Canada. We will again gather an international set of leaders in finance, trade, technology and government. Topics will include China’s financial markets, Canada’s brand in global finance, the RMB currency hub, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, emerging digital currencies and changing patterns in capital flows. Don’t miss this chance to gain a competitive edge in doing business in the Asia-Pacific, and at home. The first set of speakers will be announced soon. Email marc@cityage.org or miro@cityage.org if you have any thoughts or...

Nuclear Dangers from Hiroshima to Fukushima (Public Panel Discussion) Tuesday, May 3, 2016. 12:00 noon – 2:00pm. Multipurpose Room, Liu Institute for Global Issues 6476 NW Marine Drive, UBC, Vancouver (Lunch served at 12:00 noon; panel will begin promptly at 12:30pm) Chair: Jennifer Allen Simons Founder and President, The Simons Foundation Panel: “Prospects for Nuclear Disarmament: A Japanese Perspective” Fumi Yoshida Visiting Scholar, The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace “Prospects for Nuclear Disarmament: A Canadian Perspective” Paul Meyer Adjunct Professor of International Studies and Fellow in International Security at the Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University; and Senior Fellow, The Simons Foundation “North Korea as a Nuclear Danger” Brian Job Professor of Political Science; Associate Director, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia “Nuclear energy in Japan: The public and political debate” Yves Tiberghien Associate Professor of Political Science; Director, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND A light lunch will be provided – for catering purposes, please RSVP to ehynes@thesimonsfoundation.ca or call...

Tuesday March 1,12:30-2.Room 120 UBC Institute of Asian Research, 1855 West Mall. Free event. Prof. Hidefumi Imura (Yokohama City University) will discuss shifting Japanese perspectives on energy management and smart technology investment, not only for the creation of low-carbon cities and a green economy, but also for disaster recovery. ...

Wednesday, Feb 24. 1:30-2:30. Room 604,UBC Asian Centre. Free event. Sponsored by the Centre for Japanese Research, this talk by Ben Whaley asks the question of whether a video game might help us better understand the trauma of another through an analysis of the PlayStation 2 game Zettaizetsumei Toshi (2002, Disaster Report, 2003). In the game, players must use limited resources to escape from an earthquake- and tsunami-stricken Japanese city, while rescuing other survivors and crafting tools for survival. Ian Bogost (2011) argues that if video games are to foster empathy for real-world situations, then players should be cast as the “downtrodden.” I introduce the idea of “limited engagement” or a form of operationalized weakness in which the game design intentionally subtracts in-game skills and items in order to communicate a sense of vulnerability and victimhood to the player. Drawing on a personal interview with the game’s creator, this talk discusses the real-world survival skills and techniques the game series is credited with teaching Japanese players. I conclude by discussing disaster photography within the video game and how its presence within a larger interactive framework might prompt a stronger empathetic engagement with representational...

Friday, Feb 20 5:30-9:00. 3440 West Broadway. RSVP Required. Join us for movie night on February 20th. We will meet at a nearby restaurant for dinner at 5:30 and start the movie about 7:00. You can come for dinner, or the movie, or both. You can bring snacks or drinks to enjoy during the film if you like. We will watch “The Vancouver Asahi”, a recent Japanese film: http://www.straight.com/movies/722821/viff-2014-japanese-blockbuster-tell-vancouvers-asahi-baseball-team-story Please RSVP by Feb 18th to rsvp@mokuyokai.bc.ca Also indicate your full name, contact information, if you are Mokuyokai annual member or not, also if you will be joining for dinner, movie or...

Thursday, Feb 4 12:30-2:30 Deloitte & Touche LLP Meeting Room, 26th Floor, Four Bentall Centre, 1055 Dunsmuir Street. Free event. Registration Require. Economic and Business Dialogue with Minister of International Trade in BC On Feb 4, 2016, the Consulate General of Japan in Vancouver is inviting Teresa Wat, Minister of International Trade in BC to the event “Economic and Business Dialogue” sponsored by Asia Pacific Foundation, Canada-Japan Society of British Columbia and Deloitte & Touche LLP. Discussion topics include (but are not limited to) trading between Canada and Japan, business environment in BC, visa/immigration issues, issues surrounding small/mid-sized corporations in BC, and TPP. For more information, please refer to the official invitation letter from the Consulate General of Japan, attached to this email below. Registration is required. Please respond directly to the Consulate General of Japan at (keizai.bc@vc.mofa.go.jp) by using the format below by February 1, 17:00pm. Alternatively email to Nobunari Mano (nobunari.mano@gmail.com) by February 1,...

Friday, January 22. 4:30-6:00 pm. CK Choi Bldg, UBC. Free Event. UBC’s Centre for Japanese Research (CJR) is pleased to announce its Annual Open House Reception on Friday Jan 22 from 4:30 to 6:00 pm. We welcome anyone interested in Japan to join us for light refreshments, traditional Japanese dishes, and a classical Koto demonstration while learning about the diverse events related to Japan that the CJR hosts throughout the year. The CJR is actively engaged in promotion of research on a wide variety of topics dealing with Japan and its place in the world community. We invite you to come and learn more about the many activities of the CJR and our work towards facilitating greater understanding between people of Japan and...

Friday, Jan 22. 3-4:30. Room 120, C.K. Choi Building, UBC. Free Event. Shareholder Primacy in Japan: Layoff, Dividend Cuts and Corporate Governance. Speaker: Dr. Katsuyuki Kubo (Waseda University) Top managers in large Japanese firms are considered to focus on the interests of stakeholders rather than on those of shareholders. We examine employment reduction and dividend cut behaviour and find a significant shift in firm behaviour. Since 2000, firms have been more likely to reduce employees and less likely to reduce dividends. We also examine the effect of corporate governance on firms’ choice. Firms that have conducted director reforms tend to reduce employment and have a low likelihood of reducing their dividend. These results are consistent with the assertion that firms have moved toward emphasizing shareholders’...

Wednesday, Jan 20. 12-2 pm. Room 120, C.K. Choi Building. UBC. Free event. Speaker: Dr. Kaori Yoshida (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University) The Complexity of Dark Tourism: Packaging ‘Edutainment’ of War Tourism in Japan Sponsors: Centre for Japanese Research Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Park and the Nagasaki Peace Park are internationally recognized war-related tourist destinations. While these ‘A-bomb’ sites have been often criticized for relying on “victim consciousness”, the discussion of interpretation and presentation of these sites has become extremely complex. Comparing two war-related destinations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this talk discusses contrasting relationships of memorial and touristic sites presented at the destinations. It explores how the memory of A-bomb tragedy has been constructed, interpreted, publicized, and embedded in war tourism, by examining various tourist materials including brochures and school trip promotional materials. Certainly both cities remain focal destination for historical education for the young generations of contemporary Japan. Yet, while Hiroshima seems to take an approach to highlight the destination as the symbol of national of tragedy, Nagasaki well blends educational component of war memorials in an aesthetic cultural landscape of a historic city. The findings from the study further our understanding the complexity of war and tourism at the two destinations....

Monday, January 18th, 2016. 5-8pm. UBC Asian Centre, 1871 West Mall. Free Event 5PM Reception with refreshments. 6PM Lecture. Speaker: Dr Norma Field, University of Chicago March 11, 2016 marks the fifth anniversary of the triple disaster, the Great East Japan Earthquake that brought with it a tsunami and nuclear catastrophe. In 2013 Prime Minister Abe won the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo by declaring the spread of radioactively contaminated waters “under control,” to widespread disbelief back home. And yet, that declaration has been steadily converted into truth through the collaboration, witting and unwitting, of bureaucratic mandate and citizen need-to-forget. The process is aided and abetted by the accelerated redefinition of the character of the postwar Japanese nation. Still, to provide a merely dystopian account would be to commit a falsehood and an injustice. Let us, rather, consider the efforts being made, with intuitive or disciplined suspension of disbelief, and in defiance of the multifarious tentacles of the late Mrs. Thatcher’s dictum, to struggle for an alternative world. Those efforts take on especially precarious, contradictory, and determined form in Fukushima, and it is to them that the heart of this talk will be dedicated. Please note that you must register for this...

Tuesday, Jan 12. 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM. Multipurpose Room, Liu Institute for Global Issues, UBC. Free event. RSVP required Speaker: Chrystia Freeland (Minister of International Trade and Liberal MP, University-Rosedale) Please join us for a panel discussion on the TPP with The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade and MP for University-Rosedale. Part of a national consultation tour. Light refreshments will be offered. Welcome by Moura Quayle, Liu Director, Co-Director, Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs Panel: Yves Tiberghien, Associate Professor, Political Science & Director, Institute of Asian Research, Co-Director, Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs (Moderator) John Ries, Professor, Strategy and Business Economics Division, Sauder School of Business Matilde Bombardini, Associate Professor, Vancouver School of Economics Bio: The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade and MP for University-Rosedale was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre in a by-election in November 2013, and then as the Member of Parliament for University–Rosedale in October 2015. She was the Critic for International Trade in 2014. She was born in Peace River, Alberta, received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, and continued her studies on a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University. After cutting her journalistic teeth as a Ukraine-based stringer for the Financial Times, The Washington Post, and The Economist, Chrystia went on to wear many hats at the Financial Times, including deputy editor, UK news editor, Moscow bureau chief, Eastern Europe correspondent, editor of its weekend edition, and editor of FT.com. Between 1999 and 2001, she served as deputy editor of The Globe and Mail, before becoming a managing editor at the Financial Times. In 2010, Chrystia joined Canadian-owned Thomson Reuters as editor-at-large. She most recently worked as Managing Director and Editor of Consumer News. Chrystia was a weekly columnist for The Globe and Mail, writing extensively about the challenges facing the...

Tuesday, December 15. 11:30am-1:30pm. Four Seasons Hotel. Ticketed Event. HOLD THE DATE Lunch with Mackenzie Clugston, Ambassador of Canada to Japan. Details to follow. Event hosted by Canada Japan Society of BC, community supporter of the Golden...